INFO

Wikky-wikky wonders

Detroit Metro Times

October 01, 2003

https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/wikky-wikky-wonders/Content?oid=2177129

DJ Lenn Swann remembers the time he saved Eminem’s ass. He and the then-emerging rapper were in New York playing an industry showcase gig at a club called the Wetlands. Em and Swann were sharing the bill with the Cocoa Brovas, a rowdy New York crew that just wasn’t about to let a Detroit MC take their stage.

“They told Em if he wanted the mic, he had to come get it,” Swann remembers. “They had sabotaged his DAT tape [of backing music], so all we had for music was me scratching. But the crowd didn’t mind that the tape was messed up. New York’s a hip-hop town, they respected that it was just an MC and a DJ.” Detroit, well, that’s another story.

Swann has plenty more stories like this. He provided the beat for D12’s MC Proof when he won the Source magazine’s prestigious Unsigned Hype competition in 1999. Swann (ne Leonard Adams) has a platinum record from Interscope/Shady Records for supplying the scratches on “’97 Bonnie & Clyde” from Em’s Slim Shady LP. He has toured Europe with Slum Village, opened for Outkast in East Lansing, Linkin Park at Cobo Arena, and rocked the crowd at the inaugural Detroit Electronic Music Festival in 2000. With his DJ crew 12 Tech Mob (DJ Dez, Daddy Riff and Jacksonville-via-Detroit and former Goodie Mob DJ Shotgun) Swann has co-produced booty tracks like “Ride” that are still staples of Detroit’s weekend mix shows on WJLB -FM 97.9 and WDTJ-FM 105.9.

But where he has most made a name for himself among hip-hop purists are the battles, competing against other scratch DJs around the world. He is, by his own estimation, among the top 15 scratch DJs in the world, in the top 10 in the United States.

Like most kids growing up in Detroit in the ’80s, Swann was inspired by the electicism of the Electrifying Mojo, the technical flash of the Wizard (techno icon Jeff Mills’ former on-air persona). Seeing Run DMC’s Jam Master Jay prompted Swann to scratch. And the sheer inventiveness of fellow West Side trickster DJ Rotator — notorious for performing hip-hop tricks with crazy jungle tracks, spinning records backward and upside down using an ingenious system of rubber bands between his decks — showed him how far the limits of turntablism could be pushed.

In his 11 years as a competitor, Swann has prevailed in about every battle he’s entered, from Toledo to New York to London.

Last summer he made it to the semifinals at Cincinnati’s Skribble Jam, “the Woodstock of underground hip hop” as Swann calls it (the competition where Eminem first distinguished himself as an MC in the late ’90s, losing to fellow Midwesterner Scratch Bastid).

Swann has won the Detroit KoolMixx DJ competition (sponsored by the cigarette company) three years running, and has gone to the regional finals of the two biggest DJ competitions in the world, the DMC and International Turntable Federation.

Swann’s skill as battler has enabled him to earn a living. He’s something of a turntable gunslinger, traveling from one battle to the next, living off modest cash prizes. (Average purse: $2,500; he estimates his yearly spoils run in the low 5-digit range). His touring expense load is lightened with sponsorship from audio gear manufacturer Rane.

Sometimes the duels even find him. Late last July while preparing for a family picnic, a pal phoned him about a Foot Action- and Adidas-sponsored DJ battle on Belle Isle. “So I put my records in the trunk with the fishing pole and the picnic basket,” he laughs. “And I won. So as soon as the lights came on after the blackout, I was on a plane for New York playing at the Apollo showcasing in front of [legendary on-air DJ] Red Alert and [rappers] Cam’ron and the Diplomats.”

The platinum record, the Em pedigree, the radio hit, the international recognition. So how is it Detroit still doesn’t know who the fuck Lenn Swann is?

“The climate in Detroit right now is that everybody raps, but there’s no crews with DJs,” explains Swann. “It used to be that the better your group was, the better your scene was, and the DJs were a big part of that.

“What really influenced me was the old [late ‘80s] Detroit culture, when all the rappers like Awesome Dre and Kaos had DJs like Mystro and Los, or AWOL with DJ Homicide. What’s missing now [in Detroit] is that respect for all the elements of hip-hop. Hip-hop is the whole culture — the DJ, the graffiti writers, the breakdancers, not just the rappers.”

Swann has a point. But in an industry where rappers are far more commercially consumable than scratchmasters (whose salable output is usually limited to mix CDs of others’ music unless they make the jump to producing), and in a city where the term “Detroit DJ” still invokes the spirit of techno and house jocks like Derrick May and Stacey Pullen, Swann toils in relative obscurity. At 29, Swann is the elder statesman to a small but gifted scene of underground battlers that includes talented new jacks like Ann Arbor’s Virus and Alfredo “Alf 1” Meyers.

While their turntable battles lack the heroic swagger of the MC combats depicted in 8 Mile, they are no less thrilling. (Or as co-opted by mainstream culture: Witness the use of DJs and cutting and scratching in TV ads these days — Sprite Remix, anyone?) Swann, Alf, Virus and a handful of others spend hours practicing scratch routines that mix technical wizardry like beat juggling (back and forth between two records while maintaining a single beat) with crowd-pleasing body part ploys (using mouths and elbows to work the mixer), in an attempt to realize the perfect blend of personality and jaw-dropping tricks.

Swann calls his style “mixing technical skills with funk-dified scratches.”

If he were wielding a guitar instead of turntables, he could be a kind of contemporary Hendrix, culling next-world sounds and timeless soul out of otherwise conventional instruments.

But in hip-hop respect and money are two different things. To that end, Swann’s been polishing his production skills with the label Fallen Angelz Entertainment. His latest effort is an album of beats featuring national MCs with Michigan roots, like ruffneck-femme MC Boss and her protégé Abyss, as well as Flint-bred rappers MC Breed and the Dayton Family’s Bootleg. He has a solo record, Killa Techniques, planned to showcase not just his DJ skills, but his musicianship as well, as he programs, plays bass and raps on all tracks. The progression is a natural, forward-thinking one.

Over the past few years, hip-hop DJs have become the soul of modern music. Bands as diverse as Sugar Ray, Limp Bizkit and neo-speed-metallers Slipknot employ DJs, not just to scratch, but to produce much of their music. Before Kid Rock was making neo-classic rock, you might remember, he was a basement-party-rocking DJ in Mt. Clemens. In many ways, Rock is still the consummate DJ, only instead of mixing and scratching records, he now cuts and pastes genres. Part conductor, part aesthetician, part music librarian, the hip-hop DJ is the archetypal music producer and transcendent fan-as-artist, expressing ideas through other peoples’ music. And Swann will soon articulate his own ideas through his own music.

“In hip hop, there’s always an unsung hero and it’s usually the DJ,” Swann says emphatically, which is why, with his artist album, he’ll finally be the one singing.

CITY SLANG

Detroit Metro Times

Remembering Big Proof on the 10th anniversary of his death

Posted By Kahn Santori Davison on Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 3:09 pm

https://www.metrotimes.com/music/remembering-big-proof-on-the-10th-anniversary-of-his-death-2437326

Yesterday, April 11th, hip-hop heads around the globe acknowledged the 10th anniversary of the death of Detroit emcee Big Proof. The emcee was larger than life around the big axle and was known for hardcore battle raps as well as for bringing artists together.

Legendary DJ/producer Lenn Swann of the 12 Tech Mob released a heartfelt dedication cut, “Big Proof Rest In Peace.” Though the cut travels through melancholy nostalgia, it’s still a Detroit gritty track that Proof would have loved to spit bars on.

Battle DJs mix it up

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

By Ytasha L. Womack

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2002-08-30-0208300322-story.html

Ask DJ Lenn Swann about hip hop's humble beginnings and he'll tell you it began with the deejay. "We had two turntables and a mike," says Swann.

Swann, along with 13 of turntablism's finest, is competing for the Kool Mixx 2002 Deejay Competition semi-finals and championships this weekend. Battle deejays, unlike those who simply provide music on the radio and in clubs, focus on the complicated mastery of turntablism, the art of record manipulation.

"It takes tremendous skill," says Swann, who began deejaying at 9, during lunchtime at his Detroit elementary school. "Scratching is straight up fingers and wrists, but you have behind the back movement, rotating your arms behind your back, spin around . . . "

Competition is fierce among the nation's reigning battle deejays, with some taking as long as a year to perfect a five-minute routine. "Hip-hop is a competitive sport," says Swann, a two- time Kool Mixx finalist.

Though the art form is the original of hip hop's five elements (the MC, break dancing, graffiti art, and fashion are the four others), it's the least commercially viable in the U.S, despite its popularity overseas. Although turntablism innovators DJ Kool Herc and Grand Wizard Theodore were household names in early hip-hop circles, today battle deejays are largely underground.

But that underground following is huge. With hip hop's back to basics theme in vogue, turntablism is regaining the spotlight. Deejay group The X-Ecutioners' "Built from Scratch" CDreleased earlier this year went gold and marked turntablism's return to the mainstream. Nearly 1,000 people packed the Park West earlier this month to watch the Chicago finals.

"[There's] a place for gimmicks in deejaying but it's really all about skills," says Swann. Battle deejays are obsessed with maintaining the art's purity. It's this high energy and respect for the artform so reminiscent of early hip-hop, that may be the hook to its revitalization. "I've taken pilgrimages to the Bronx and to the Bay and have talked to the guys who pioneered the art," said Swann. " It's all about knowing your history."

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Kool Mixx Deejay finals, 9 p.m. Sat., Subterranean, 2011 W. North Ave., and 8 p.m. Sun, Riviera Theatre, 4746 N. Racine Ave. Free; 773-275-6800.

“The Incredible History of 7 Mile’s DJ Lenn Swann”

December 7, 2021

https://www.thissomebull.com/the-incredible-history-of-7-miles-dj-lenn-swann/

Detroit has always been the go-to place for music. Motown records provided the soundtrack to the 60’s and 70’s with hits from The Marvelettes to The Jackson 5. But a new sound was on the rise in the late 70’s and early 80’s, that sound was hip hop. Imagine being a young kid from the westside seven-mile area hearing this new sound. Back then that kid was Leonard Adams, later he would come to be known as the world famous D.J. Lenn Swann. Thissomebull.com recently had an opportunity to sit with the 12 Tech Mob legend for a history lesson on how he became one of the world’s most decorated and recognizable DJ’s.

Thissomebull.com: Talk about growing up. Where are you from?

DJ Lenn Swann: I grew up on the N.W. side of Detroit between the 20/20 7 Mile blocks and the notorious 8 Mile Sconi neighborhoods, back in the mid-to-early 80s when Hip-Hop was freshly influencing the hood to make an impact on the culture with literally dope-perspectives in fashion, flows with rhymes, beats with rhythm and scratches, as well as realizing our roles in helping create the Detroit Rap sound and street feel before it was accepted Nationwide.

Thissomebull.com: What were the songs that made you fall in love with music?

DJ Lenn Swann: RUN DMC “30 Days”; Fat Boys “Stick Em”; and all the songs from Whodini’s “Escape” LP; plus, NWA’s 1st compilation LP featuring the young D.O.C, Skating Jams like Panic Zone and Hood anthems like “Dope Man”.

Thissomebull.com: What was your initial reaction the first time you heard Hip Hop music?

DJ Lenn Swann: I first saw Hip Hop in person with an older cousin of mine at RUN DMC’ & Jam Master Jay’s King of Rock tour at the Royal Oak Music Theater in 1985. JMJ was in control of the way RUN & D did their performance; They brought the house down as a true Hip-Hop power Trio (DJ and MCs Band sort-of-say). The Energy was undeniable for all in attendance (White, Black, Arabic, Asian or whatever creed or color)

Thissomebull.com: What made you want to become a DJ? What DJ’s influenced you back then?

DJ Lenn Swann: Where rap groups were involved, JMJ was the king of the stage and the recording/ production process in the studio with RUN DMC; who wouldn’t want to be a part of this new evolution in music from the ground up? Grand Master Dee, Miz, Alladin, Joe Cooley, Rotator, D.E.D., and the rest of my 12 Tech Mob DJ Brothers (Los the Original, Shotgun, Dez, Riff, Don Q, and myself)

Thissomebull.com: Talk about how the 12 Tech Mob formed?

DJ Lenn Swann: We came together from a common love of the Turntablist craft, forming a bond in the late 80s from Detroit’s DJ culture’s in early party scenes & Rap releases. From putting in work as DJ’s in middle school in Detroit to becoming mobile DJs, then as session musicians on Rap recordings, as well as being Open Mic controller DJs (Hip-Hop Shop/ Stanley’s Restaurant), and Battle DJ’s in the underground Hip-Hop circuits of Detroit.

Thissomebull.com: You’ve been in plenty DJ competitions over the years. What has been your favorite memory?

DJ Lenn Swann: Winning The Detroit Kool Mix Battles in front of major crowds at venues like St Andrew’s, and the Warehouse, performing at those battles on the same bill with major acts like De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, and Kanye West, plus not to mention my talented DJ peers who made the battles energetic and authentic to Detroit’s quality of musicianship and performance standards. (Ask your momma’s and daddy’s if your too young to remember seeing anything like this). Repping the USA in the 2002 Vestax World Final in London, England was also definitely on the top-of-my-list:

Thissomebull.com: You’ve collaborated with countless artists in your career. Who were some of your favorites to work with?

DJ Lenn Swann: As a DJ/ Producer, Tour support specialist; My favorites are Dice, Bizzy Bone, B-Def (R.I.P.) Eminem, Proof (R.I.P), Baatin(R.I.P) of Slum Village, MC Breed(R.I.P), Young Hoop, Blac-e-Blac (R.I.P) and Miz Korona to name a few. Why because they all brought their unique Mid-West Rap style and energy into Hip-Hop that can’t be duplicated.

Thissomebull.com: How has the Detroit rap scene evolved in your eyes?

DJ Lenn Swann: It’s evolved into a slick storytelling genre of gritty unique street rhymes and beats that are riding in their own lane, destined to meet up full circle with the successes of Motown, P-Funk, and Techno that rooted deeply in the city before the current scene existed.

Thissomebull.com: What has DJ Lenn Swann been up to lately?

DJ Lenn Swann: Making beats as usual, doing film and photography pieces (12 Tech Mob Documentary in the works), and keeping an ear out for the latest music released by the Detroit O.G. and New Generation artists! (Us DJs are supposed to break records, right?)

Thissomebull.com: What do you have coming up?

DJ Lenn Swann: More creativity and collaborations with my peers in the industry; to prove Hip-Hop in Detroit is still alive and kickin.

Imagine becoming one of the best DJ’s in the world. Detroit’s westside has contributed a lot to the hip hop culture in so many ways. Imagine being a kid in the early 80’s watching JMJ control the crowd, realizing one day you’d control crowds from all over the globe. Picture meeting a group of like-minded individuals in middle school, becoming one of the most recognizable DJ crews ever. That’s a lot for a person to imagine, for DJ Lenn Swann this is reality.

Contact DJ Lenn Swann:

https://linktr.ee/lennswann?fbclid=IwAR2AFifx5DFnsKFsKTVIMxgWs-cTWVL9OR8hujQtz_UwzFDiKvyMcnGZRVY

Written By: S.L Jackson (for more info visit www.1sljackson.com Santoine@thissomebull.com )